This invention relates generally to electronic games, and more particularly to electronic games which are useful as teaching devices.
Electronic games which provide visual aids to the players to assist them in their decision making are useful for teaching the fundamentals of positional games, such as chess, checkers, etc., to inexperienced players, or for assisting more experienced players in improving their game. A particularly useful teaching device for positional games is one which provides a visual indication to the players of their possible moves. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,671 to Gardner discloses a chess game comprising a chessboard having a socket on each square thereof into which the various chesspieces are plugged as they are moved on the board. A plurality of optical fibers interconnect the 64 squares of the chessboard, and each chesspiece contains a light source for directing light through a mask comprising a plurality of openings located in a predetermined pattern on the base of the chesspiece. The pattern of openings, which encodes each chesspiece according to its type, directs the light into selected ones of the optical fibers to illuminate the squares on the chessboard to which the chesspiece is capable of moving. The Gardner device, however, does not take into consideration the positions of other playing pieces on the board, which influence the manner in which some chesspieces are able to move.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,679,397 to Thacker discloses another chess game in which squares that are under attack or which are defended by one or more chesspieces are illuminated. However, the Thacker device provides a bank of 64 switches for each player which must be manipulated in order to illuminate the squares.
Generally, known positional electronic games, particularly for chess, which is a rather sophisticated positional game, possess one or more significant disadvantages. They tend to be either overly complicated, both in terms of structure and in terms of operation, or to be overly simplistic and lack flexibility or usefulness as a teaching device.